Charles O'Hara Booth (31 August 1800 – 11 August 1851), was an English-born army officer who served in India, the West Indies and England for a total of 18 years before being posted to
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sep ...
,
Australia (later to be named
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
). He remained there for a further 18 years, first as commandant of
Port Arthur penal settlement and subsequently as the head of an orphan's school.
In 1815, aged 15, he was sent by his parents to India in the care of an uncle. The following year he joined the
53rd Regiment as an
ensign
An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...
. Three years later he returned to England and applied for a commission in the
21st Fusiliers. From 1820 to 1827 he served in the West Indies before returning to England. With the rank of captain, in 1833 he arrived with his regiment in Van Diemen's Land. He was soon appointed commandant of the principal convict settlement, Port Arthur, and he also controlled all convict stations on the Tasman Peninsula. His position gave him entrée to the upper levels of Van Diemen's Land's small, exclusive society, in which he quickly became well-liked and respected.
In 1840, changes in penal organisation under the probation system confined his jurisdiction to Port Arthur and the adjacent juvenile establishment at Point Puer. Under his command the township of Port Arthur was laid out, small harbours were constructed and swamps reclaimed, a government farm was set up, a convict-powered
tramway was constructed, and a semaphore-signal telegraph system was established for faster communications, especially to capture escaped prisoners.
[
]
Reputation and achievement
Booth was an impartial and efficient administrator, as prompt to reward as to punish. Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur
Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet (21 June 1784 – 19 September 1854) was Lieutenant Governor of British Honduras from 1814 to 1822 and of Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania) from 1823 to 1836. The campaign against Aboriginal Tasmani ...
described him as "kind and humane, active and most determined".[ He was regarded as severe but just in his treatment of convicts, but he was also accused of being insensitive about individual problems in his zeal to treat all prisoners equally.][
In a departure from the focus on severe punishment that characterised penal practices at the time, Booth's initiatives at the juvenile reformatory, Point Puer, separated young prisoners from older, more hardened convicts and gave them special attention and trade training so that the cycle of criminal behaviour could be broken. The reformatory was described as "an oasis in the desert of penal government".][
]
Personal tragedy
In 1838 Booth and a convict assistant, Joseph Turner, became lost in the dense bush
Bush commonly refers to:
* Shrub, a small or medium woody plant
Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to:
People
* Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name
**Bush family, a prominent American family that includes:
*** ...
of Forestier Peninsula
The Forestier Peninsula is a peninsula located in south-east Tasmania, Australia, approximately by the Arthur Highway, south-east of Hobart. The peninsula is connected to mainland Tasmania at East Bay Neck, near the town of at its norther ...
. After they became separated, Turner found a settler who raised the alarm; a large search party was assembled. Booth survived four nights in cold wet autumn weather, suffering exposure, weak with hunger and with only his dogs for company. One of the dogs spotted a searcher and took him to Booth, who was frostbitten and too weak to call out. He never fully recovered from the ordeal.[
]
Later years
In November of the same year, Booth married Elizabeth Charlotte Eagle, the 19-year-old stepdaughter of the regiment's surgeon. His health did not improve and his interest turned to family life; his enthusiasm for the convict settlement declined and he retired from the army in 1839[ or 1840.][ He remained at Port Arthur until, in 1844, he was appointed superintendent of the Queens Orphan School][
]
References
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, Charles Ohara
1800 births
1851 deaths
English emigrants to colonial Australia
Royal Scots Fusiliers officers
King's Shropshire Light Infantry officers